Creative Paperclay® air dry modeling material: Creative Paperclay® Sunflower Bobble Head

Hi everyone, my name is Kat Anderson and I’m so excited about my first tutorial for Creative Paperclay®

I’ve been experimenting making bobble heads and wanted to make something that reminded me of summer and what better than a bouncing sunflower.

Materials:
Creative Paperclay®
Delight™ air dry modeling compound
4 inch x 2 inch paper mache' cone (Amazon)
26 mm doll eye sizer or 1 ½ inch wood ball
1 ¼ x 3/8 coil spring from the hardware store
White Gesso (Liquitex brand)
Sandpaper
Water
Dust mask
Paint brushes
Clay rolling pin
Sculpting tool, knife to cut clay petals
Satin acrylic paints:
Light yellow, dark yellow, blue, green, red, black, light beige, brown, and white
Red chalk or powder blush for cheeks
Strong all purpose glue
Matt Sealer

Make a ball with Creative Paperclay® that is around 2 inches

Take the eye sizer or the wood ball and push it into the clay to make an opening. Take the spring and push it into the center of the clay about ¼ inch deep to make an indentation for the head to sit on when it’s dry. Remove the spring and let the clay ball dry for a day or put it in an oven on low temp. I usually set the oven around 200 degrees.

Roll out a piece of Delight™ that is about ¼ inch thick to make a piece that looks like a bonnet to go over the ball for the sunflower petals to sit on. Find the center of the ball and attach the clay bonnet to the ball with a sculpting tool. I used water as the glue. Let dry.

While the head is drying let’s start on the body. Cover the cone with glue and roll out some Creative Paperclay® to cover it. Smooth the clay on the cone by rolling it on a flat surface.

Add the spring to the top of the cone and put a little clay around the bottom of the spring to make sure it’s attached to the cone. You can let it dry a little to make it easier to work with.

Take a couple of pieces of clay and roll them out to look like snakes.

Attach them to the body where the shoulders would be, about 1 inch down from the bottom of the spring. Use water as glue and blend the edges into the body for the arms.

Draw lines to look like the veins of a
leaf.

Add a couple of sleeves at the shoulders and a little bit of clay for the neckline of the dress. Add strip of clay around the bottom of the skirt. Smooth with water. Let it dry for a little while to make it easier to work with.

This part is optional.

You can cut a circle of clay and add it to the bottom of the cone or just smooth the bottom edge with a paintbrush and water so it sits flat on a table.

Let the body completely dry.

You can test if it's dry by tapping on it with the handle of a brush. If it sounds hollow it’s dry.

Then sand it smooth. Wear a dust mask when you're sanding.

Back to the head.

Cut out little petals with the Delight™ to make 2 layers of petals on the front and the back of the bonnet. Attach them and blend in the bottom edges of the petals with a sculpting tool. Let completely dry then sand the part that is the face and the back of the head. You don't need to sand the petals.

After everything is dry and sanded paint the body and head with Gesso and let dry.

Then the fun begins PAINTING!!

Paint the petals of the sunflower with light yellow acrylic paint and highlight the bottom of the petals with the darker yellow. Paint the face and the back of the head with light beige paint.

Let dry.

Mark the center of the face lightly with a pencil so you know where to position the eyes and nose. Take the end of your paintbrush dip it in the blue paint and make dots on the face for eyes. Make a heart shape for the mouth.

Make little check marks with brown paint for the nose and draw a little line through the center of the heart to put a smile on her face. Put a couple of tiny white dots in her eyes for the highlights. Add her eyebrows with the brown paint. Take a soft dry paintbrush and add cheeks with the chalk or powder blush.

Paint the neck with the light beige then paint the body with the blue. Paint the arms with green and the trim and sleeves with the light yellow.

Let dry.

After the body is dry make little flowers for her to hold. Take 3 little balls of the Delight™. Press in each ball with the end of a small paintbrush handle to make petals. Attache the 3 petals in the center with a sculpting tool. After they dry put a dot of red paint in the center. Attach them to the body with glue.

Put the head on the body. If the spring doesn’t fit in the indentation on the inside, take a knife and carefully cut out a little of the clay around the groove till the spring fits snugly into it.